Confessions of An Aspiring Author

25 Turns, Pivots, and Twists to Complicate Your Story

as inspired by Chuck Wendig

I was doing some writer-y things today when I got stuck on a certain part of my writing: my plotline.

I was wondering what road to take, how many bends that road needed to have and when should I throw in the first steep turn. So, I did what most teenagers and most aspiring writers do when the going gets tough: I googled it.

And it was so that I stumbled across a blog post by one of my most adored online bloggers who writes about writing: Chuck Wendig.

Now, I’ve never actually read any of his stories but I have spent many an hour scrolling through his blog, reading his posts and laughing (maybe rolling my eyes a bit) at his words. As I was reading his post about plot twists and what types of plot twists to use, I thought I would share with you, my little audience (and who knows, the odd fan, I don’t know how popular – or more likely unpopular – I am) some advice that he gives.

If you’re wondering why I don’t just post his original article up on here and cite him, well, I sincerely doubt that teachers here at Pontefract NEW College would allow me to. Mostly because of his language. It is pretty rare to come across a paragraph written by Wendig that doesn’t include some pretty foul language and though, while I’m 100% certain that everyone our age knows and uses some pretty explicit words, I doubt college would allow me to post it. So, instead, I’m going to share with you some of my favourite points of his and, depending on how generous I’m feeling, I may just put the link to the original post at the bottom, just in case any of you want to read it, curse words and all. Considering that there are curse words in it, I’m not sure if I’ll even be allowed to put a link on there but, if it’s not allowed, I’m sure it’ll either be taken out in editing or this article will be taken down in its entirety. Either way, enjoy this article – and the link I am deciding to place here: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/03/19/25-turns-pivots-and-twists-to-complicate-your-story/ while it lasts).

That one guy is really some other guy

We all have moments in a book or a movie when, oh my god, that person’s identity is revealed. Bruce Wayne is Batman! Darth Vader is Luke’s father! Saruman is actually, like, the main villain! It’s confusing and it’s shocking and it makes an audience’s head spin. All along we expect one character to be that one character forever and then, what the frickity-frack, they’re actually somebody else? Major plot twist.

I’m fairly certain that major character just died

A.K.A. Game of Thrones. Take a character. The protagonist. The antagonist. The sidekick. Take whatever character you want, just make them a main one. And kill them. I was stuck for a loooooonng time about how to get a certain character out of a sticky situation. Then I just figured ‘Hey, what if they don’t make it out?’ and so I killed her. As soon as one of the major league characters die, everything changes. Rules change, attitudes change, other characters change as they react to the death. The world as the characters know it is irrecoverably altered. Nothing stays the same and it can be hugely entertaining and intriguing to see where the story goes following that character’s demise.

Story-Ception

There is nothing quite so riveting as reading a story and watching a movie and the entire time you’re sat there thinking “Oh, okay, this is about this person who has this sort of life and is aiming to do that. Great. Cool. Whatever.” And then, all of a sudden, whang, bang, boom, the person you thought the story was about died and his life was about to change and his aims became someone else’s aims but because of all the other crap that’s going on, all this other character’s drama is coming in the way. Confusing? Admittedly, the way I phrased it, probably. But interesting? Definitely.

The most important part about plot twists? They should be unexpected. They should come out nowhere and smack you in the face like an angry ex-girlfriend who you haven’t seen in five years coming at you in the middle of the street with intent to kill or to at least maim.

If you can see a plot twist coming, it’s not a plot twist. It’s just another plain old, run of the mill event. Make it interesting. Make it surprising. Make the reader gasp. Do that, and you can do anything.